Select Global Women in Tech

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The Select Global Women in Tech (SGWIT) program aims to promote American competitiveness and technology leadership by attracting talented women leaders in emerging technology sectors to spur economic growth and innovation, as well as to support women’s economic empowerment globally. 
 

Mentorship Network

The SGWIT Mentorship Network is a yearlong program that formally launches at the Investment Summit and introduces international women tech entrepreneurs to the U.S. market with the support of SelectUSA’s traditional data and counseling services as well as community, learning, and networking opportunities.

The SGWIT Mentorship Network offers participants access to: 

  • An experienced mentor from the U.S. startup ecosystem as an informational resource on challenges in scaling, promoting, fundraising, and establishing a business in the United States
  • An exclusive mentoring platform 
  • SelectUSA data and counseling services
  • Educational content, webinars, workshops, and virtual events, and networking opportunities, including but not limited to the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit

The 2025 cohort timeline is as follows:

  • Kick-off: May 11–14 at the SelectUSA Investment Summit 
  • Preparing for Matching: May 15–June 30 
  • Matching: July 1–August 31 on the SGWIT mentoring platform
  • Mentoring through May 31, 2026 (official program end date)

Throughout the duration of the cohort, SelectUSA will host virtual events to share information and create space for connection between Mentorship Network participants. 

Both mentors and mentees will benefit from the mentoring relationships as they build new skills, make new contacts, ignite new ideas, achieve their goals, and reinvigorate their own work.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in the SGWIT Mentorship Network, check out the information below for more details.For a

For a foreign female business leader seeking to expand in the USA, this is a MUST DO event to learn, network and explore opportunities to provide a practical, informative perspective for confidently determining the best strategy for market-entry.
- 2024 Participant

 

Mentees

To participate in the SGWIT Mentorship network, interested women must be approved to attend the 2025 Investment Summit as a SelectUSA Tech startup. 

Eligible startups must be:

  • Founded outside the United States, and
  • Developing an innovative technology product or service (a new technology, and/or delivering an existing technology to a market in new ways), and
  • Looking to the United States for market-entry or growth within the next 2-3 years.

SelectUSA Tech startups must also meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • 0-10 years old (Founded on/after January 1, 2015)
  • 0-40 employees
  • $0-10M in annual revenue

SGWIT mentee candidates indicated their interest in the SGWIT Mentorship Network on their 2025 Investment Summit application. The deadline to receive a guaranteed spot as a mentee for the 2025 cohort was March 27, 2025. The mentee application is now closed.
 

Mentors

SGWIT mentors are U.S.-based successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, venture capitalists, angel investors, and attorneys interested in supporting international women entrepreneurs in tech in their efforts to achieve their U.S. expansion goals. 

Mentors will be selected from across the U.S. startup ecosystem based on their interest in supporting women-run businesses and their expertise in supporting tech startups on their U.S. investment and expansion journeys. Prospective mentors will be evaluated based on their:

  • Industry Knowledge 
  • Areas of Specialty
  • International Expansion Skills/Experience
  • Entrepreneurship Skills/Experience
  • Womens’ Empowerment Experience/Interest 

U.S. and Foreign Government employees and Economic Development Organization officials may not serve as mentors, but may support the network via educational content contributions or events.

As a SGWIT mentor, I found the Investment Summit to be engaging and generative. Not only did I knowledge share with mentees, I was able to forge new connections with fellow ecosystem builders that are dedicated to amplifying businesses across the globe.
- 2024 SGWIT Mentor


ADVANTAGES to mentoring

  • Make a meaningful impact on women looking to bring their business to the United States.
  • Join a supportive community of passionate, devoted mentors and ambitious women entrepreneurs working on expanding their business into the United States.
  • Strengthen your organization’s reach in key markets or extend your reach to new global markets by connecting with the Foreign Commercial Service and contributing to worldwide in-market events.
  • Raise your organization’s profile among a global network of tech startups, economic development organizations, public sector officials, and others in the tech and startup ecosystem.
  • Access to:
    • Numerous networking opportunities
    • SelectUSA’s diverse programming, including virtual events and the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit
  • Consideration for speaking opportunities with SelectUSA
  • Option to submit your organization’s profile for the SelectUSA Service Provider and U.S. Startup Ecosystem Directory
     

Application Information

The mentor application is now closed. If you have already applied, you will be notified by the end of April 2025. We will open recruitment for the next cohort of Select Global Women in Tech in Fall 2025. We appreciate your interest. For any questions, email SUSAEvents@trade.gov.

Accepted mentors will receive more details about the matching process in the lead-up to the cohort kick-off in May 2025. Not all accepted mentors will receive a match. The matching process is mentee-led, leveraging the mentoring platform’s matching algorithm, which prioritizes aligning mentee needs to mentor specialties. 


The SelectUSA team is proud to bring together resources from across the United States to support international women on their U.S. investment journey.